430,000 to become eligible for GP visit cards in coming months as scheme expands

Around 430,000 people will become eligible to apply for GP visit cards in the coming months as the scheme is expanded to anyone earning up to the median income. Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly said it was all part of “the biggest expansion in access to GP care in decades”.

Some 500,000 people will be newly eligible for the scheme overall when the six- and seven-year-old children – who were added in August – are included. The cards allow free visits to participating family doctors.

Mr Donnelly said the expansion was “important, symbolically, on our way to universal healthcare because now for the first time in the history of our State over half the population will have access to free GP care”.

The process of allocating the cards to people paid up to the median income is being staggered depending on income levels. This is to ensure the Health Service Executive (HSE) has the capacity to process the high number of applications expected.

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One example of the income thresholds is single people who live alone. Those with a weekly income of €361 or less will be able to apply for a GP visit card through a dedicated online system from September 11th. The income limit for the same category of applicant will rise to €418 from November 13th, allowing more people to apply at that point.

All children up to and included the age of seven are already entitled to GP visit cards. The Government has committed to providing the cards to all children under 12 but Mr Donnelly said he would not be pushing for a further expansion in this year’s budget talks.

He said GPs raised “very legitimate concerns” about the capacity to absorb the extra demand “which inevitably will follow”, adding: “I believe that we have pushed that as far as it can be pushed without creating other problems for all the other patients in terms of access.”

This year’s expansion was announced in Budget 2023 but was delayed by opposition from GPs, who said they would be unable to cope with the additional workload. Long-running talks with the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) were completed in June.

The measures, projected last year to cost €111 million, now have a price tag of €130 million.

Mr Donnelly said the deal with the IMO increased the rates of payments to GPs and provided increased resources to GPs in terms of hiring, retaining, and training-up staff.

He said the number of healthcare course were also increasing in a bid to address what he said was “a very real shortage of GPs in some parts of the country”.